Pleasing everyone : mass entertainment in Renaissance London and golden-age Hollywood / Jeffrey Knapp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knapp, Jeffrey (Professor of English), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--England--London--History--16th century.

Theater.

Theater and society.

History.

England--London.

Theater--England--London--History--17th century.

Theater and society--England--London--History--16th century.

Theater and society--England--London--History--17th century.

Motion pictures--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

United States.

Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States.

Motion pictures--Social aspects.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

297 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017]

Summary:

"Shakespeare's plays were immensely popular in their own day -- so why do we refuse to think of them as mass entertainment? In Pleasing Everyone, Jeffrey Knapp opens our eyes to the uncanny resemblance between Renaissance drama and the incontrovertibly mass medium of Golden-Age Hollywood cinema. Through fascinating explorations of such famous plays as Hamlet, The Roaring Girl, and The Alchemist, and such celebrated films as Citizen Kane, The Jazz Singer, and City Lights, Knapp challenges some of our most basic assumptions about the relationship between art and mass audiences. Above all, Knapp encourages us to resist the prejudice that mass entertainment necessarily simplifies and cheapens whatever it touches. As Knapp shows, it was instead the ceaseless pressure to please everyone that helped generate the astonishing richness and complexity of Renaissance drama as well as of Hollywood film"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note:

Introduction

Part 1: The individual and the mass

1. Which Moll?

2. The real John Doe

Part 2: Show business

3. I must be idle

4. One step ahead of my shadow

Part 3: Junk and art

5. Mocked with art

6. Throw that junk

Epilogue: The author of mass entertainment

Coda: A second look

Notes

Works cited.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780190634063

0190634065

OCLC:

957133207